Shekhawat rejects Natwar's plea

RS chairman denies permission to raise a matter of breach of privilege of House over Pathak report.

Rajya Sabha Chairman Bhairon Singh Shekhawat on Thursday turned down as 'not admissible' a notice by former External Affairs Minister Natwar Singh, seeking permission to raise a "matter of breach of privilege of the House".

The notice—dated August 4—had contended that "within a few minutes" of the submission to the Prime Minister of the Pathak Authority Report—containing the findings of the panel's probe into the linkages of the Congress and other political personages with the Iraqi oil-for-food scam as alleged in the Volcker Report, the main findings were made available to the media.

Chairman Shekhawat said Natwar Singh's notice had further stated that the Report had not been shown to him nor a copy of it was laid on the Table of the Rajya Sabha.

The discredited—and now suspended—Congressman had, therefore, requested permission under Rule 188 of the Rules of Procedure and Conduct of Business in the Upper House to be allowed to raise "this matter of breach of privilege of the House".